1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anchoring dowel for joining two bodies by insertion of the dowel therebetween. The dowel comprises two complementary half-dowels in mutual contact, each half-dowel having a similar semi-cylindrical configuration and being delimited, at an outer face of the dowel, by a portion of a cylindrical surface of revolution and, at an inner face of the dowel, by a contacting surface for the other half-dowel. The configuration of the two half-dowels is such that the dowel formed thereby is elastically compressible in a transversal direction.
2. Prior Art
A dowel of the above type is disclosed in French Patent No. 2,594,027. One of the half-dowels of this dowel comprises at one end a projection turned towards the other half-dowel. This creates an expansion at the corresponding end of the dowel when the two half-dowels are inserted into place through the bodies to be joined and submitted to compressive forces from the latter, causing them to flex elastically.
Although this dowel has a well-proven structure, it nevertheless has a number of drawbacks:
its end must imperatively extend beyond the bodies to be joined, so as to allow the two half-dowels to spread apart and flex. Accordingly, it cannot be used to affix a body having just a blind hole, for instance;
the compressive forces from the bodies joined by the dowel are concentrated at narrow zones on the dowel's perimeter, and are consequently badly distributed over its length;
at least one of the half-dowels has a complicated shape, which leads to high manufacturing costs.